Munich (dpa / lby) – The left in Bavaria is likely to be led by a female dual leadership in the future: At the upcoming state party conference at the weekend, the long-standing co-chairman and member of the Bundestag Ates Gürpinar no longer wants to stand for election as state leader. “I was active at the state level for ten years, first as press spokesman, then as managing director, and finally as state spokesman. That’s enough,” he told the “Abendzeitung” (Thursday). Gürpinar had repeatedly announced this step in recent years.
At the party conference at the weekend, former SPD politician Adelheid Rupp will apply to succeed Gürpinar’s post. The current country manager Kathrin Flach Gomez is also up for election. Theoretically, further applications are possible before the election. Rupp was a member of the state parliament from 2003 to 2013 – from 2007 to 2009 she was also deputy state chairman of the SPD in Bavaria. Rupp has been a member of the left for around a year, Gürpinar told the German Press Agency.
